The Netmums Podcast - S11 Ep5: Steve Backshall: The Deadly 60 host on solo parenting

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Steve Backshall, the charismatic UK children's TV naturalist, has captured the hearts of young nature enthusiasts across the globe with programmes like Deadly 60. With his infectious enthusiasm, adventurous spirit and boundless knowledge of wildlife, Steve encourages all ages to explore and protect our planet's incredible biodiversity. But is his greatest adventure solo-parenting three young children? CBBC’s Deadly Mission Shark is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer This series of the Netmums podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative. 

You're listening to the Netmums podcast with me, Wendy Gollich, and me, Alison Perry. Coming up on this week's show... We're in this incredibly important time in their lives when they're working out who they're going to be. They're working out what they are as personalities, what they're going to be into, what their passions are. And yeah, ideally, Helen and I would be with them the whole time. But then, you know, which families get to have that privilege? That's just not something that's possible. And we have plenty of friends

who are in the military or who do other jobs where there's lots of traveling, there's lots of times away. And what you've got to do is you've just got to make sure that you're very strict with yourself about the times that you are together

and you make sure you do really worthwhile things. But before all of that... This episode of the Netmamas podcast is brought to you by Aldi. Wendy, I've got a question for you. What's your guilty parenting pleasure? Oh, I'd probably say it's gobbling up cold fish fingers from my kids' plates after they've abandoned dinner in favour of watching the telly. I do that too. I reckon my guilty pleasure is sneaking out and escaping my children to have a lovely browse of my local Aldi alone. I am so with you. What I love about Aldi is they have an

excellent range of great value products. They even have an award-winning baby and toddler range, which includes weaning essentials, nappies and wipes. It's funny you should say that, because another friend told me that she switched to Aldi Mamiya and it's giving her big savings. Yes, plus, with Netmums and Aldi, new parents can get a pack of newborn nappies absolutely free. So log on to our site and let your friends know about this awesome opportunity with Netmums and Aldi. Right, don't tell my family, but I'm sneaking off to Aldi right now. Hello, everybody. Does anyone else feel like September is some sort of birthdaymageddon? In our house, it's my birthday, it's my daughter's birthday, and it's my wedding anniversary,

and it's my father-in-law's birthday and there are four birthday party invitations in the text messages and it's only the third day of term allison yeah well do you know what it's actually a fact that september is the busiest birth month of the year it tells you a lot about what's happening around about christmas time um but also i've got really i've got a really top hack um which is if you if you've got loads of birthdays coming up go to i think it's card factory they have this amazing deal where it's like 10 cards for a pound which basically makes them 10p and just go in and buy a job lot and that's you for the whole year it is the perfect perfect tip so tell us i don't know whether our guest today is going to have tips on going to Card Factory, but he might have some tips for us on something a little bit more interesting.

Tell us who we've got on today. My tip was very interesting. Thank you very much, Wendy. Sorry, I did not mean to disregard you. It's hot. I'm a little bit overwhelmed. It's early. Carry on.

Joining us today for a chat is award-winning naturalist and adventurer Steve Backshall. Steve is best known for presenting Deadly 60 on CBBC, where he meets the most dangerous animals on the planet. His new show, Steve and Annie Schwarz Go Wild, is on CBBC now, and Deadly Mission Shark hits CBBC soon. He's also a dad of three, including twins. And knowing what that's like, I bet it's been his toughest challenge yet. Steve, welcome to the podcast. Hello, hello. And there is no doubt that it's been my toughest challenge by far.

Well, once upon a time, we spoke to the lovely Mrs. Helen Glover on the podcast, and she told us a little bit about how hard twins was as well. Yeah, well, Helen at the moment is away at the World Championships rowing in Belgrade. And she's been away for most of the summer. So I've been on full time daddy duty since kind of late June. And it's been amazing. It's been something that i will never forget but it keeps you on your toes trying to do you know everything that you need to do

you know as a full-time one to three ratio with with zero sleep is is intense but then the payoffs is you know this morning was uh my my eldest's first day at school i've i've literally just dropped him off with his nice cleanly pressed white shirt and his tie um and it was all i could do not to have a little cry but you know those are the payoff moments right those are the things that make all the the grind worthwhile that's so true oh god if the year i dropped mine off i would not be recording a podcast i was literally a puddle for like two hours hats off to you steve i've got four-year-old twins and they started um at primary school as well just recently and i was an emotional wreck that day so how you were here and being coherent is amazing.

Well, I mean, let's leave the coherent description until after we've done the podcast. I mean, I might actually fall asleep halfway through it. You'll just hear snoring down the line. We're far too loud for that. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Now, you might get asked this a lot, but naturalist, naturist, not the same thing, right? Do you know what? I've might get asked this a lot but naturalist naturist not the same thing right

i've never been asked that before it must just must just be the way your brain works i mean i did actually once um pitch a a documentary called the naturist naturalist uh but but sadly it never got taken i'm not sure why you surprised me missed opportunity now i've got to ask you steve my my twins my four-year-old twins have been loving watching steve and anish wargo wild on cbbs um they watched the giraffe episode the day before we went to a safari park and then they saw the real giraffes, which was just so exciting. Do you think it's important to take our kids to see real life animals? I do. I feel that, as I'm sure you'll agree, that children learn really well from books and from screens and from teaching and from you telling them things but the way that they they get inspired uh the way that you ignite the fire inside of them is by them being able to see and smell and touch and feel

things and particularly you know to getting getting grit under their fingernails and getting muddy and getting sweaty and getting dirty and that's how i got into wildlife when i was a kid that's how i got into nature um And it's still how I get my kids into nature now. It's climbing trees, it's going fishing, it's going pond dipping. It's all these things that I did when I was a kid. Now, I also, when I was a kid, because my parents worked for the airlines and we got free travel, had the opportunity to go on safari for the first time when I was very little. And that is what inspired me and what set me on the road to what I do today and what I've done for my entire life. But not everyone has those

privileges. Not everyone has the capacity to jet off to Kenya for their holidays. And yet, they still need the inspiration of being able to see a lion for the first time, being able to see a zebra for the first time. being able to see a zebra for the first time. And that is something that, you know, in this country, for the vast majority of people, can only be done in a high quality, ethical, well done safari park or zoo. And so, you know, for me, for someone in my position, to be down on safari parks or zoos would be completely wrong. So what advice do you have for parents who are thinking they really want to take their kids to see animals in real life, but they're worried about zoos or safari parks and whether they look after their animals and if they are ethical? What's your advice on making sure you're picking

a good one? Well, first of all, if you have those concerns and those are important to you, you don't have to. You can still go to see animals in the wild here in the UK. You know, we have more parks and green spaces in our towns and in our cities than any other European nation. Take advantage of it you know there there is always the the opportunity for us to go and learn about bird song in our in our local green space to go looking for bugs and mini beasts to as i said before go go pond dipping for the extraordinary aquatic invertebrates that we have living in our ponds you know there and there's lots and lots of information out out there including a book that i and my my wife wrote together incidentally i wasn't on to plug that but

you know i just thought i'd just chuck it in there but well tell us the name it's called it's called called wildlings how to how to raise your child in nature and it's one of you know many many different ways that you can find out about ways that you can get your kids engaged in nature um but if you do want to go to a zoo or safari park you know it's it's not hard to figure out if if your local one is a good one and the ones that we used on this series uh chester zoo being our our kind of main one you know they do so much extraordinary conservation work there's so much work done behind the scenes in fact there are far more animals behind the scenes that are being used as part of captive breeding programmes

and that are being used as ambassadors for their kind. You know, those kind of places you can go to and know that you're doing the right thing. Yeah, we went to Port Lim down in Kent recently and they seem to do quite a lot in terms of taking animals back to the wild when they can, which kind of set our mind at rest a little bit. Yeah. And I think that, you know, I have over the years had to go to an awful lot of places overseas that leave you with a very heavy heart because they don't have good ethics

in the way that their animal husbandry is very poor. But we here in this country are pretty stringent with the way that we make sure that zoos and safari parks observe rules and regulations. And so, yeah, I mean, myself and Anishwa, my young co-star, had... He was brilliant, by the way. He has absolutely got a career in TV ahead of him. Well, he already has a career in television. I mean, this was like his third series.

It was a little bit embarrassing. You know, he's eight years old. Is he making you feel ancient? Making me feel ancient and also looking back to what I'd achieved at eight years old and thinking, oh, well, crumbs, he is on the road to success. Oh, my God. This morning, my eight-year-old achieved breakfast and brushing her hair, and that was a fight.

Sums it up for 99.9% of the population, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. So tell us about Deadly Mission Shark, because 70% of oceanic sharks have been lost in the last 50 years, haven't they? So sharks are heading for extinction, which is pretty heartbreaking. years ago and it's taken this long to convince CBBC that it's a risk worth taking and when I explain what the series is you'll understand why. We took 10 kids from the UK and from the Bahamas most of whom had never been outside the country before. We taught them how to scuba dive, got them to be qualified open water divers and then took them diving with seven different species of sharks and some dolphins thrown in there for good measure as well, finishing with a dive with critically endangered great hammerhead sharks.

It was, you know, in the media, we talk so often about things being life-changing and life-affirming. And this really was, you know, I got to see 10 kids in the space of two weeks on the road in a shark sanctuary, completely changed, changed from, from being young people with, you know, various things that they were interested in to coming out the end, being conservationists, divers, passionate about sharks, passionate about marine biology um and seeing this awakening in them of enthusiasm and and inspiration was one of the best things i've ever done i i just absolutely loved it and the series uh is coming out now on cbbc and on bbc iplayer and it's it's really special we're popping on again to remind you that this episode of the Netmums podcast is brought to you by Aldi.

Switching to Aldi Mammy and Nappies can save parents more than £200 during the first 12 months alone. Don't forget to visit Netmums to claim your free pack of newborn nappies. And let all your friends know too. So my favourite of your programmes is Expedition, just because I love being a little bit tense when I'm watching stuff. Is asking you what your favourite programme you've filmed is like asking you which is your favourite child? In that you definitely have one, but you're not allowed to tell anyone. A little bit like that, yes. Mind changes on a daily basis, can we just say, as well. I think the expedition programs have been the most fulfilling thing that I've done.

You know, to be able in this day and age to go through cave systems that have never been illuminated before before taking the first light into shadows that have never been never been lit up to to travel down rivers that no one's mapped before to come around a corner and discover a 100 meter waterfall in the middle of the jungle and know that it doesn't exist on any map that it's completely uncharted to summit mountains no one's climbed before you know those those kind of things are, no one will ever be able to take that away from me and my team. And they are moments that we will all treasure. And the times that we were sat around the campfires at night,

kind of going back through, picking through all the things that have happened in that day and pinching ourselves that it could even be possible at all, let alone in this day and age. They've been the most special moments, not just of my career, but of my life. And being able to do those and age. They've been the most special moments, not just of my career, but of my life. And being able to do those and do them on camera at the same time, so that we'll always have this memory, we'll always have the evidence that we did that, is something very, very special. I don't take it for granted for a second.

It's incredible. It's so amazing, the work that you do. You mentioned earlier that you have done a whole summer of parenting, which I take my hat off to you. That is tough. How do you and Helen juggle your careers on a kind of day to day basis? Is that a case of just getting your diaries out and saying my work that I need to get booked in is more important than your work. How do you do it? Well, it's particularly hard over this couple of years leading up to the Paris Olympics because Helen is either training three times a day, seven days a week, or she's away on a training camp and she's gone. You know, she's contactable, but yes, it is hardcore. And likewise, when I'm on my trips and my expeditions, I'll be away for weeks at a time and sometimes not contactable either.

So over this year, it has been a case of us just making sure that one of us is there for the kids and kind of sucking up the fact that we're not going to see each other. And that's, you know, that's not great but it's particularly at this stage in their lives it's much more important that they have one of us there to to fall back on as a constant because you know routine is so important isn't it for youngsters at this kind of age and they need mummy or daddy preferably both of us but that's not possible at the moment they need one of us there. So yeah, it's been a juggling act. It's been really difficult, but I think things will change after Paris next year. And how do you cope with missing them when they're so young, being away from them when they're so little? Well, it's always hard being away from them, but when they're so little and they're doing new stuff all the time. It's brutal. At their age age they can change in a

weekend they can they can change you know over the course of a couple of days sometimes it seems like they completely change in a play date so to be away from them for a couple of weeks or you know a couple of months as Helen has been this summer is just it's heart-wrenching you have to try and not think about it because it just completely breaks your heart and we'll just never get this time back with them. But at the same time, we're throwing so much into parenthood that I think, you know,

they're having a wonderful time. They're doing some incredible things. And I think that we will have lots and lots of time, particularly once the Olympics is done, to try and have proper, proper family time. They very much live in the moment as well, little kids. They're just in it. So it's easier, as I find it's easier as a parent to rationalise,

you may feel terrible and guilty and be missing them. But from moment to moment, they're just doing what they're doing. And if that happens to be with Daddy, then they're having a wonderful time. And if next time they do it, it's with Mummy, they don't have the same guilt, the same problem with it that we do. The same awareness, yeah. I don't know. I mean, I know that they really hate us going away

and that when we come back, the explosion of emotion you get from them is is i mean it makes me feel both sick and want like i want to well up and cry just thinking about it but yeah it's it's a huge thing for them um and i i think you know we're in this incredibly important time in their lives when they're they're working out who they're going to be. They're working out what they are as personalities, what they're going to be into, what their passions are. And yeah, ideally, Helen and I would be with them the whole time. But then, you know, which families get to have that privilege? That's just not something that's possible.

And we have plenty of friends who are in the military or who do other jobs where there's lots of traveling, there's lots of times away. And what you've got to do is you've just got to make sure that you're very strict with yourself about the times that you are together and you make sure you do really worthwhile things. And we're very good at that. We are good at sort of like saying, right, well, we've got this weekend, we're going to go wild camping and kayaking and we're going to go, you you know wandering up and down the strand line looking for awesome things that the tides washed in we're gonna go rock pooling we're gonna and you know smashing the time that we do have together as as a family so they're obviously finding you know

discovering their passions and developing their personalities um are any of your kids showing any exploring or rowing tendencies that you can cultivate yeah so i think it's really fascinating it's our family could be a little social experiment you know because you know the twins were born right slap at the beginning of um the first lockdown of the pandemic they had almost no social interaction with anyone outside of our family for you know most of the first year and yet the two of them the twins one boy one girl are so different you know they they could not be more opposite from nowhere the little girl is the girliest girl you've ever seen she she is obsessed with unicorns and rainbows and frilly dilly dresses where did that come from i mean with two brothers as well

that's quite something it's obviously just in her i mean i mean i can't see how there is an inherent unicorn gene that doesn't seem very likely but at the same time you know helen's not a girly girl she spends her whole time wandering around in her pe kit and and you know the rest of us are you know it's quite quite a blokey family and yet we've got the girliest of little girls um and then our our oldest logan he he definitely has got hooked on the wildlife and exploring thing and he's really really into that um the the little boy kit is the only one who's actually showing any aptitude for anything physical but who knows you know it's it's it's young it's early days they're weak they're so young aren't they has like there's been some fairly near-death experiences over the years

steve and has becoming a dad kind of changed your view on putting yourself in those situations and taking those risks? It has. I certainly think about it an awful lot more than I did when I was in my 20s and 30s. You know, when I was when I was single and didn't have a family, I'm very much more considering a bit. But, you know, my whole life is one long risk assessment. Everything I do, I'm having to figure out, you know, is it acceptably safe? Is the payoff, you know, worthy of the risks that we're taking? And the fact is that everything we do has risks from the moment we walk out our front door. And a lot of the risks that I do are very quantified and are, you know, made reasonable through 30 odd years of experience so doing something like you know

diving with big sharks that most people would think would be crazy i kind of know that in the right situations it's safer than working with horses it's safer than working with dogs in the right situations and you've got to be able to know what those are likewise working with venomous snakes venomous snakes actually are a dream to work with. They're predictable. You know, you can, you, there are ways of doing it that can be absolutely safe and far safer than walking around a big city at night. So, so yes, I think about it an awful lot more. I am more careful about, you know, what I do with risk. But I mean, I can't do my job without any. So, you know, I have to just rationalize it and, you know, do the things that I believe I can do safely.

Yeah. Now, back in 2014, I think it was, we saw you don sequins on Strictly. Do you thinken might be tempted to follow in your footsteps so helen did the um children in need version of strictly she did yes and i i think she didn't she only had like two or three training sessions for her one dance and she did really enjoy it she's been offered dancing on ice but was was unable to do it because of her training i think that because she embraces training and challenge so wholeheartedly that i wouldn't write off her doing any of those kind of programs i think that if she felt that it was the right time she could totally dedicate herself to it and nobody would bet against her you You know, she is the most ambitious, driven, focused person I've ever met. And I think that even something that she's not naturally good at, if you threw her into it and it required determination to get good, then Helen would get good.

So what's left, Steve? Like, what are those things on your bucket list that you still want to explore or achieve other than just remembering the right pickup time for the kids at school and all of that stuff? Is there anything left that you want to do? Yeah, I essentially I want to do it all over again. But with the kids, I think I think that I am rediscovering through them some of the things that I treasured when I i was when i was a kid when i was knee high and seeing it again for the first time through their eyes is the most magical and special thing so i want to be able to go back to you know the places that have been special to me and and see my youngsters experience it for themselves see their wonder see them getting inspired um and you know i think that that's definitely true for me and my family that's what i really want but at the same time i think think

on things like deadly mission shark having the opportunity to take the things that i've done in the past and introduce those to a whole new generation of potential shark saviors is so much more rewarding than me just going out and just doing it myself for telly and so i'd love to do more of that kind of thing being able to take young people into the jungle and get them to you know see a harpy eagle catching a monkey up a tree or see you know their first ever dung beetle rolling a big ball of poo down a road you know those kind of things to see them uh you know setting fire to the imagination of young people is the most rewarding thing that I've done in my career. I hope I'll have the opportunity to do more of that in the future.

I think I want to come. Forget the kids. Can I come too, please? I think there's no doubt that you're inspiring a whole new generation. So I think the work you're doing is fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today Steve it's been wonderful to chat to you. Oh it's been a pleasure been so nice to talk to you guys. Thank you so much. And we hope that there is a great happy little person coming back from primary school at the end of today. There will be I'm absolutely sure of it.